Mount Greylock Pounds Franklin Tech in Western Mass Semis
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock volleyball team is on the verge of another banner year.
On Wednesday, it took a moment to recognize a senior who has been key to hanging a lot of banners on the walls of the Mountie Dome.
Before the third set of Mount Greylock’s sweep of Franklin Tech in the Western Massachusetts Class C semi-finals, coach Greg Geyer grabbed the mic to point out that Kylie Sweren eclipsed the 1,500-assist mark for her career.
After putting down seven kills and serving eight aces in a 25-7, 25-13, 25-13 win, Sweren laughed about the brief ceremony.
“I actually got it last game or a few games ago, but we didn’t realize how many I have,” Sweren said. “So he wanted to say something.”
Geyer later explained that while the Mounties do keep statistics by hand during the game, he relies on reports from the videotaped for the Hudl service for official team numbers, which can come in days after a match.
Sweren was a primary setter last year in Mount Greylock’s state championship run. This year, she moved back to a more natural role, both setting and attacking for a team that stands at 16-3 heading into Saturday’s regional final.
“It’s been a great experience,” she said. “I’ve always been setting. But we’ve been doing a 6-2 [rotation] for a few years, except for last year, we were in 5-1. It’s nice to play different positions and have a bigger role moving forward.”
Everyone in red played their role to perfection on Wednesday night.
The top-seeded Mounties were never really challenged in advancing to their fourth straight Western Mass final.
Senior captain Emily Alvarez (10 digs, five aces, one kill) got the ball rolling with a couple of aces in a three-point run to grab a 4-0 lead. Two sideouts later, Sweren served six straight points, getting kills from Kelsey MacHaffie (10 kills, two aces) and Annabelle Coody (five kills, six aces) to push the margin to 11-2.
It was 19-7 when the serve got to Olivia Perez (seven kills, five digs, three aces), who finished the set with a run that featured two more kills from MacHaffie, a tri-captain along with Alvarez and Sweren.
Alvarez opened the second set with six points on her serve, and the Eagles never got closer than three points as the Mounties grabbed a 2-0 lead in the match.
That’s when Geyer paused the proceedings for a quick celebration of Sweren’s accomplishments.
Later, he was not surprised to hear that the senior was taciturn about the milestone.
“She’s a team person,” Geyer said. “She’s all about the team.”
But the numbers show that Sweren has been a notable contributor to the team’s success.
“Last season was the one season she played as a pure setter, and she set a school record in assists that year,” Geyer said. “And now she’s a primary hitter. She was a secondary hitter in the past, when we ran a 6-2, and she has 152 kills this season plus whatever she got tonight. … She’s played on varsity since she was a freshman, and if you add her assists, kills and aces, she has, like, over 2,100 direct contributions to a point.
“And she’s never missed a practice in the entire time she’s been here. Kylie is an amazing team player. She doesn’t like to be pulled aside from the team. She views everything as related to her team.”
The third set was by far the most competitive of the night.
Franklin Tech got a kill from Emma Petersen and back-to-back aces from Taylor Underwood to close to within two points at 9-7.
But a kill from Perez stopped a three-point run, and the Mounties gradually built a working lead. It was a five-point margin, 17-12, when Tyanna Lepicier went to the service line. She served one of her four aces in a three-point run to open an eight-point margin.
Coody closed the match with a four-point run that ended in two aces.
Mount Greylock will look for its third straight Western Mass title on Saturday afternoon at Taconic High School, where the Mounties will face either second-seeded Lenox or sixth-seeded Mahar, who meet on Thursday evening.
“We’re getting better every day,” Geyer said. “We had some things happen today with some of our players that they never did before – really good things. We want to get better every day, and we’ll be ready for Saturday. I think it’s going to be a great match. These post-season matches are a lot of fun. They’re always close. And that’s what I expect. There are a lot of teams who are really similar to each other when it gets to that final round.”